Tag Archives: Partridge Family

With Disney buying so many franchises lately, I was surprised to find someone who could actually buy a little piece of the Mouse! But as I was watching another Season One episode of The Partridge Family (ep. 21 – A Partridge Up a Pear Tree) the first scene showed Keith cleaning up his ‘new’ car. The plot involves how broke he becomes trying to keep it on the road.

And I noticed right away that it was a fabulous Hudson Hornet from the 50’s! Sound familiar?

It’s Doc Hudson! I’m thinking this was after his big crash but before he got fully restored and found a new life in Radiator Springs. Obviously, between those times, he ended up in the loving hands of Keith Partridge (above).

Here’s a pic showing Doc all fixed up:

This is a die-cast model of Doc without his racing stickers, as we would see him in Radiator Springs. And next is a pic I took recently at the Art of Animation Resort in WDW, Florida:

Looking good! As you compare the real Hudson Hornet to the Pixarified version, you’ll notice a little artistic licence was taken with the side trim and ol’ Doc was supposed to have a radio antennae sticking out of his forehead between his split windshield. But over all, our Pixar pals did an amazing job of staying true to the original car design.

Now all silliness aside, how many of you have actually seen a real Hudson Hornet? Well, if not, here is a little history on the car, and where you can see it today (from Wikipedia):

Hudson was the first automobile manufacturer to get involved in stock car racing. The Hornet “dominated stock car racing in the early-1950s, when stock car racers actually raced stock cars.”

During 1952, Marshall Teague finished the 1952 AAA season with a 1000-point lead over his closest rival, winning 12 of the 13 scheduled events. Hornets driven by NASCAR aces Herb Thomas, Dick Rathmann, Al Kellar, Frank Mundyand, and Tim Flock won 27 NASCAR races driving for the Hudson team.

In the AAA racing circuit, Teague drove a stock Hornet that he called the Fabulous Hudson Hornet to 14 wins during the season. This brought the Hornet’s season record to 40 wins in 48 events, a winning percentage of 83%.

Overall, Hudson won 27 of the 34 NASCAR Grand National races in 1952, followed by 22 wins of 37 in 1953, and capturing 17 of the 37 races in 1954 — “an incredible accomplishment, especially from a car that had some legitimate luxury credentials.”

The original Fabulous Hudson Hornet can be found today fully restored in Ypsilanti, Michigan at the Ypsilanti Automotive Heritage Museum, a facility that was formerly home to Miller Motors, the last Hudson dealership in the world.

And I’ll conclude this post with a picture of what one of the Fabulous Hudson Hornets looked like, this one driven by Herb Thomas:

{Editor’s Note: Lee keeps turning out some great Disney information from old television shows! Who would have thought that Doc Hudson would appear in the Partridge Family? Have you ever seen some Disney characters or things appear in your favorite shows? Let us know in the comments, and thanks!}

Today we have a Disney tie-in almost by default. Now that Disney has bought-out Lucas Film, and thus the Star Wars franchise, stars from that franchise are fair game for this series. At least that’s my contention!

With that said, today I found a brief guest appearance by Mark Hamill/Luke Skywalker in Episode 16 of The Partridge Family entitled ‘Old Scrapmouth’. In this episode, Laurie (played by Susan Dey) has to get braces just before her boyfriend (our man Luke) is about to ask her to go steady. High drama in 1970’s TV sitcoms!

This episode was shown in 1970 when Mark Hamill was 19. It wouldn’t be for another 7 years when Mark was to go to a galaxy far, far away.

I almost didn’t recognize him at first. He appears twice before this scene where you can definitely see the man he was to become.

You can certainly tell it’s him here! Mark appears in one more scene where he learns that Laurie has braces, but he still wants to go steady, so I guess he’s a nice guy on Earth and in space!

He may become ‘Luke’ later, but he is just plain ‘Jerry’ now.

Here he is in 1980, just 3 years after the original Star Wars, and the year the first sequel was done.

And here he is today… ish. Mark Hamill is now 63 and possibly set to cameo in the new Star Wars film(s) by Disney. Are you excited about Disney’s acquisition of Lucas Films? Do you think Disney can continue the Star Wars franchise successfully?

Actually, he really only meets Danny (Danny Bonaduce) from the family, and two hoods set on putting the fear of a mob boss into our little protagonist. This week’s entry comes from the first season of the Partridge Family in episode 7 entitled Danny and the Mob (1970 airdate).

And here comes Danny now:

This is a great old Donald Duck inflatable that Danny wears during the scene. As you can see, Danny seems pretty care free at the moment, but Donald… not so much!

And now I guess we can see why. While trying to intimidate Danny, the two hoods end up elbowing Donald in the face! Ouch.

Upon closer inspection of the inflatable, you can see that other Disney characters are depicted on the ring:

You can just make out Mickey and Donald, but I can’t quite tell who the others are. Maybe Eeyore in the front right corner? I also spotted a copyright name on Donald’s neck, as you can see below:

Again, it’s hard to make out, but I’m pretty sure it says ‘Walt Disney Productions’ under his name, which makes this a pre-1987 product. As the production company probably would have picked up props like this as new items, then it is probably from 1970, the date of the episode.

{Editor’s Note: Today we introduce a great friend of mine, Lee, who is from North of the Border and is one that I used to write with at Chip & Company. In doing so, we are also delving into the realm of Television, and looking at different shows that have had a Disney influence on them! We hope you enjoy, please give Lee a warm welcome!}

My wife and I love to watch old TV shows. We find the 70’s and 80’s, while they delivered horrible fashion and car design, at least gave us great sitcoms! Recently I was able to pick up the complete series of The Partridge Family on DVD for only $30 at Wal-Mart and we are making our way through the first season.

Imagine our surprise when a famous mouse appeared in the episode entitled My Son, The Feminist (episode 12). See if you can spot Mickey in this picture:

Time’s a wastin’, found him yet?

If you said the vintage Mickey Alarm Clock over Shirley Jones’ left shoulder, you have a good eye! But just so you can see it a bit better, here is a bigger image:

Not very clear, but a definite confirmation of a Mickey sighting!

Please check back from time to time as I will be sharing other Disney celebrity sightings from The Partridge Family as well as The Twilight Zone, The Andy Griffith Show, and others.

Say, have you ever spotted a Disney Celeb hiding out in your favorite sitcom? If so, let us know in the comments below!

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